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I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this topic, but please do move this thread if not. Is the Thomas the Tank Engine licence negotiable for construction toys for Lego? I know Mattel made products for the Mega Bloks brand and apparently still do, so could and would Lego do products again for the licence currently, at least under the Duplo and/or Juniors themes?
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Mega Bloks + Kre-o as one company = bad news for TLG?
AmperZand posted a topic in General LEGO Discussion
According to the BBC ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35496381 ) and other news channels, Mega Bloks' owners Mattel are in merger talks with Kre-o's owners Hasbro. Would a single Mattel-Hasbro be bad news for TLG? Mega Bloks has always made low quality products while Kre-o has been pretty decent quality but badly designed (have you seen their minifigures?). Together, they could be OK quality and design and therefore more of a threat to TLG. What do you think? Apologies if this should have been in the Community forum. As it concerns TLG, I thought that it would be alright in General. Please move it if it isn't. -
I met a guy from Mattel who bought some LEGO for play testing
legoman19892 posted a topic in Community
Just a neat little story for you. I was doing my regular shift at the LEGO store when a man comes up with the 3 series 2 mixels, the green Minecraft set, and a Simpson's CMF. I ask for his VIP card, and he had one. Turns out the guy is from out west and is in the area (Midwest). I ask him who is getting the LEGO he is buying and he says he works for Mattel and is going to Montreal to meet with Mega Brands for some play testing. I tell my manager about this during downtime and he replies, "So they finally want to try to compete with us? At least they bought directly from us and not eBay or something." There always is a small chance the customer was pulling strings but I want to believe. -
I'm not really sure if this sensitive topic should be in general discussion or embassy board. If some think it works better there, please inform me. Well I'm still loyal to LEGO and has no product of other brands on my hand to compare the details. However, during these years as long as TLC obviously skip many choices (especially in Cuusoo) due to their own picky guidelines, some competitors have gotten these abandoned choices and begin to make some "beatbacks", though not all of them are that successful. Are there licenses that you believe TLC should have got, and are there original themes ideas that TLC could have made used of in better ways? Here I just name some examples. If you want to discuss themes I didn't include, you may mention in replies . I don't focus on obvious clone brands or Chinese brands. License conflicts might not be in the major discussion (eg, Transformers for Hasbro KRE-O). MegaBloks Many of the MB product parts are integrated and unbuildable, But still it is one of the most long-running brand. Some of the children-oriented themes heavily rely on large parts specifically created for the sets. Figures from each theme have extremely different sizes and designs, which are not compatible at all. Barbie Now due to that Mattel has bought MB, this is absolutely a license in conflict with TLC. It is also an obvious rival to Friends (But is it a threat to Friends? I don't think so.) However I would like to see Barbie the character from Toy Story be a LEGO minifigure/doll. Another good point is at least MB introduced a child type of figure that Friends doesn't have so far. Smurf Smurf is so far my favourite license among the MB ones, but still most mushroom houses in MB designs lack of buildable elements that can hardly interest me. And MB didn't make any set based on the movies even though their release time was pretty close. Hello Kitty HK and other Sanrio mascots have been a popular among many other clone brick toy brands. But in other words maybe TLC doesn't like "red ocean marketing", and we rarely see TLC make pure mascots that aren't originated from media stories (Quiky and Julius are not actual themes). HALO, Call of Duty and WarCraft Online video game licenses have been obviously out of TLC's targeted market for a long time. I guess TLC would only choose the "safe" ones such as MineCraft Spongebob, Thomas and Dora These are the reason why MB is much hated. Thomas is very uncertain since TLC have been putting less focus on trains. Is Dora discontinued in MB now? COBI COBI's figures are more different and have a standardized size, though not every figure from different themes look the same. The building designs are between Megabloks and TLC, some of the sets feature original building designs and some of them use large parts. Small Army Military has been an issue in LEGO fanbase discussion. I'm not sure if these products are outside TLC's guideline, but generally they look okay. Wild Story Like early Adventurers, this theme focuses on wild adventures and different adult animals. Now Friends introduced Jungle sets so maybe we could see TLC make their new step again. Winx Club Beside LEGO Friends and MB Barbie, it's currently another obvious girls-oriented theme and TV show license. Honestly I'm not familiar with this show (and I'm not used to their prints ). It features and combines both fantasy and modern elements to its playsets to make it different. I guess TLC isn't interested in shows that don't use English as first language? Scooby-Doo The most classic Hanna-Barbera science-fiction license. Actually, since TLC begins cooperation with WarnerBros, perhaps there is a chance for TLC in the future when SD reboots again? OYO Sportstoys OYO features brick toys based on sport themes-- including football, hockey and baseball. Their minifigures are generally the same with LEGO's, but they added bendable knees to specific positions to make minifigures more vivid. Speaking directly, they copied the commercial approach of LEGO NBA theme, but under their brand they include a much wider selection of real players with various sport goods. Beside that, OYO also introduce referees and mascots, and invent their own field boards. I'm not sure if this series is popular among sport fans (I don't really watch sports), but these do look appealing. My criticism is that the mascots should really use original head molds like the Chima's, not those ugly prints. Actaully, since TLC had mentioned NBA characters again in recent TLM, could TLC consider to make NBA theme again? Especially that it totally matches CMF series though this kind of CMF series would only target at specific customers. K'NEX Though there is no standard product scale or figure size, K'NEX provide a different selections of themes. Their recent popular products are three famous video games including Pac-Man, Super Mario and Angrybirds. Super Mario K'NEX made it differentby having two lines under this license. One is traditional Super Mario Bros platformers, the other is Kart racing. As a game player, my critism is that it doesn't provide all racing characters from the video game, resulted in being unable to appeal Mario fans. And repetitive recolor versions in character blind bags show very little sincerity. Judging from the experience of Cuusoo Zelda, TLC doesn't show too much interest in Nintendo cooperation even though the game licenses can target at younger children. Angrybirds Buildable toys are obviously suitible with AB because it allows fans to customize their own physical stages and play like they did in nonphysical game world. Again, TLC isn't interested in getting AB mostly because it is a red ocean already.
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My fellow lego fans we must look on horror on these foul things! Mattel, who recently bought Canadian makers of Megabloks Mega Brands, has today announced that it has purchased a number of key LEGO fan sites in an effort increase sales of its products to adults. “We see expansion into the adult market as key to increasing sales across the board and to enable us to compete with LEGO in the construction toy category” explains Avril Prima, head of acquisitions at Mattel, “Purchasing the sites that adult construction toy fans visit and encouraging them to publish news, reviews and information about our products will, we believe, convert AFOLs to AFOMs.” The full interview is on this link.http://brickset.com/article/10745/mattel-acquires-key-adult-lego-fan-sites-to-convert-afols-to-afoms#comments .
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Matell to buy Mega Brands for 460 Million
